Childhood
by Shinzoku
Summary: Law is the son of that famous 'green haired man' who once tried to capture Lugia. However, the boy must deal with his own problems and consequences, like losing seven years of his life to a long, cold house arrest. He might be stuck at home and in the immediately surrounding forests, but who knows what kinds of people and Pokemon he could meet?


Rhythmically the heels of his palms pounded against his forehead where already two bruises were forming, but that was nothing compared to the sorrow, heartbreak, and anger he felt. His Pokemon was gone to some sort of rehabilitation; its Poke Ball had been crushed and caught in a new one, so that it now belonged to an officer. He remembered the shriek it had made when they went to crush it, remembered how it had been yanked from his arms and taken away without any remorse. Each pound came with a murmured curse, stinging words for such a young kid. He should have known that would have happened to his Pokemon. But he had been raised differently, hardly seeing his father, hardly having any friends, growing up in the house he was sitting in with nothing but his old babysitter and her pet Meowth. His father had been of doing something so stupid that he refused to think about it, feeling ashamed for his family despite the only known living people being him and his father.

He felt so stupid. So angry. But that was what Pokemon were for, right? To fight? No one had been there to tell him that killing Pokemon was wrong and for months he had been confused as to why people would always sob as his Charmander delivered the final blow. But behind all of that was some strange drive, a difficult sort of cruel motivation that caused him to go out and slay the creatures one after another. After all—they were creatures of battle, they were used to such things and knew the risks. …right?

He sniffed and rubbed the tears off his raw, puffy face, wanting to look presentable for dinner should his father invite him. The green-haired man had been doing some strange things the past few days, activities the boy cared little for, and as usual he had not seen him except when he stood up from his desk in the living room, closed his laptop, and retired to his bedroom during the night. The boy knew that he would not want to speak to him; he had not for the past two months Law had been back at home, and at least his father knew that killing Pokemon was wrong. He had at least wanted to keep the birds for display, though the boy wondered if keeping them cramped in little cages was better or worse than a swift death. Again he pounded his forehead, chastising himself for thinking such a way. That was the reason he had began seven long years of house arrest. His father should have been on some sort of house arrest, too, but the boy only knew that he was able to leave to go to the store or try and find a job. He had to be at the house a majority of his time, just like his son.

The boy suddenly let out a sob and doubled over, burying his face in his arms. He was so stupid! Officer Jenny had been right; he was a morbid young boy, psychopathic if anything. A high ranked Pokemon abuser. It pained him to be labeled as such, but he deserved it. He so deserved it and the consequences of his actions were only just beginning to settle on his thin, tiny frame.

"At least… At least I didn't try and catch a Legendary. At least I didn't almost cause the end of the world." He felt relief.

His father's actions made him embarrassed and ashamed, but he was proud to say that he had no part in the near destruction of the world mere months earlier. In fact, he had not even heard of why the world had suddenly undergone some strange weather metamorphosis where it changed nearly every hour for an entire day and night. He only knew something was wrong and felt crushed when he found out.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door and he nearly let out a shrill scream. He quickly rubbed the new tears off his face with the back of his pale violet shirt and stood up, trying to make something of his floppy, tangled hair. His father was never one for sloppiness.

"Lawrence, it's time for dinner."

"I told you to call me Law! We have the same name, it's confusing!"

"I am your father and I will call you whatever I please."

The boy sighed and nodded, staring at the floor. When he looked up, he found his father in his usual turtleneck and jeans, lacking much of the flare he often had. It was so…different. But that somewhat blank stare unnerved the boy and made him nod again. "Yeah, yeah I'll be down in a moment," he muttered, looking back down on the floor.

But as he closed the door, Lawrence put his foot out to stop it. He pushed the door opened and gently grabbed Law's chin, pulling his head up to study his face. "What happened to your forehead?" he asked quietly, brushing his thumb over the forming bruise. Law huffed and looked away.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Law tried to pull away, but to no avail. "I'm fine, I promise. I just…fell."

"On what, son? There are two huge bruises her …" Lawrence sighed and let go of him, his arm dropping to his side. "Oh well, just come eat dinner. I managed to find soup today; I need to go out tomorrow."

Law looked back into his room for a moment, looking at all his items bathed in a pleasant glow from the setting sun. The light filtered through the curtain in funny little patterns. At one point that had been his favorite place, but now he just shook his head, took a deep breath, and padded down the hall. Part of his life that bothered him was that his family was rather, ah, wealthy. Law tended to ignore that part, too flustered to ever take advantage of it, but it had been more comfortable then; they were living off what his father had left, and, though there was still a hefty amount, if his father did not find job soon they would quickly be out. It was why they were living off the simple foods, like sandwiches and macaroni.

As usual, his father was sitting at his laptop, which had been moved to the table, with his head resting against a propped up hand. He looked rather funny to Law, with his cheek all smashed against his face, but in fear of getting in trouble, he kept quiet, lowered his eyes, and sat down wearily at the chair. Lawrence swirled a spoon around in his bowl absentmindedly, but refused to look up and speak to Law. That was how it went since the day Law came home.

"Why don't you go outside and do something tomorrow?" Lawrence suddenly suggested, closing his laptop. "You're going to become even paler than you are just sitting in here all day."

"I have no reason to go outside. Besides, I'm under _house arrest _for seven years."

"Become friends with the Pokemon, then. You are allowed out into the forest. Officer Jenny could never put a child under real house arrest. Just go outside."

"There's just a bunch of wild animals, why should I care?"

"Pokemon are…strange creatures. I think there's even a few Ledyba or whatever they're called."

"Yes, father, Ledyba." Law heaved an exasperated sigh, burying his face in his hands. "It's not that hard. But I don't like Ledyba."

His father shook his head. "I'm not a trainer. I could care less about Pokemon."

"So I've heard."

"Don't get snarky with me, just eat your food and then head up to your room."

Uncomfortable silence reigned. Law stared at the wall to his left, avoiding his father's gaze. He shifted, blinked a few times, quietly ate his soup until he was done, and then he stood up, put his bowl in the sink, and sauntered back up the stairs. The whole time, he wanted to lift his hands and pound them into his forehead again, but even scowling made his forehead sting from the new bruises. He had to restrain himself until he sat at his desk in his room, his hands holding his head. The room, now dark, felt eerie, empty, and lonely. A few pictures were on the wall and a few toys shaped like the Zoroark, Greninja, Gengar, Pikachu, and Charmander were positioned side by side on a shelf above his bed, which sat against the middle of a wall and stretched to the middle of the room. Other than that, the book shelf in the corner, and his desk, the room was completely empty and white.

He occupied himself with thinking and doodling on a sheet of paper until it was nearly nine. Somewhere in there, he had dropped his pencil on the desk, his head hanging in sleep. When his father knocked on the door and disturbed his dozing, he jumped up, stumbled, and got the door open just in time; any longer of not holding onto something and he would have passed out from a nasty head rush. Again his father stared down at him.

"What?" Law grumbled, gripping the door knob until his knuckles turned white. "What do you want, I was sleeping!"

"Don't talk to me like that, Lawrence. I just need a few books from your shelf for something I'm working on."

Law rolled his eyes and slinked back to his desk, listening to his father rustle about. He had collected all sorts of books when he was little, given to him by his baby sitter and bought from a few stores he had come upon during his rather short lived adventure. Some were about the legends, some were like written Poke Dexes, and others were simple story books and pictures books. Of course his father took the first two listed and then went to leave, but he stopped at the door, shifting three large books into his arm.

"What are you doing?" Law asked.

"Just…thinking about something," his father muttered, his brow furrowed. "Do you miss being out there with your Pokemon?"

"I—what?"

"Do you miss it? Despite all the chaos you caused?"

"I don't know, do you miss collecting despite all the chaos you caused?"

His father just grumbled and left the room, closing the door behind him. Law frowned and stood from his chair, changing into his cloud-print, blue pajamas. He sat at the edge of his bed, fiddling with his PokeDex, scrolling through the Pokemon he had seen a few months prior. There were the basics like Ratatta and Spearow, but then there were rarer ones like Nidoking, Blastoise, and Rapidash. He had only found and collected data on about fifty of them, but the more he scrolled through, the more he realized he actually did enjoy and miss being out with his Pokemon. When they were not battling, they were traveling around and seeing new sights—perhaps he should not have been so mean with his Charmander.

Except, he had never believed in the whole 'Pokemon are your friends' thing. He had no idea that such a bond could be created and had destroyed any attempts at it before he could find out. Law frowned and closed the PokeDex, setting it back on his desk, and then pulled the covers back.

Sleep never came. He laid there, trying his darndest to sleep, but ended up staring out his window at the twinkling stars and puffy clouds that floated by. Now it was starting to hit him what he would be missing in these seven years; friends, new Pokemon, new sights. He rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the tears from welling up. He squeezed them shut and yanked the covers over his head, trying not to make it seem like he was crying again, trying to not shake and sob.

The door opened and his father padded in, placing the books back in their original spots. It had to have been at least three in the morning; did that man ever sleep, Law wondered. He laid still in his bed, keeping his eyes closed, and tensed up when his father stopped by the bed.

"Lawrence, are you okay?"

He did not move.

"I know you are not asleep, you move around too much when you're asleep." He sat at the edge of the bed and crossed one leg over the other. He did not sound mad, upset, or anything. His voice was monotonous. "Come on Law, talk to me."

"You haven't wanted to talk to me the entire time I've been here. That's two months."

Lawrence shook his head. "I'm dealing with a lot of things right now," he said gently. "Like trying to keep the house and get an actual job, I don't think I'll be leaving Viridan City, let alone /Kanto/, any time soon. I've been busy."

"You've been upset."

"Yes because I've suffered a great defeat recently. It hit hard, Lawrence, you have to understand that."

"Just call me Law!"

"Come out from under your blankets and I might."

He sat up with a loud huff and threw the blankets back, giving his father a hard, cold look. There were dark marks under his eyes from being unable to sleep and red splotches on his cheeks from wiping off his face repeatedly while sobbing. "What do you want."

Lawrence scowled. "I came to see if you were okay," he said. "It's been too long since I've actually talked to you without you getting all smart with me."

"Fine. Fine whatever, just talk."

"It looks like we're going to end up being stuck here together for what seems like an eternity. Might as well make amends with you, especially considering we hardly ever talked to each other, even before all of this happened." Lawrence stood up and began to wander around the room, looking up at the blank walls. "If I can't find a job soon, we could lose this place. But how about we paint it? It's so…white. That's too bland."

The boy let out an enormous yawn. "Do you ever sleep?" he asked.

"I've been too worked up the past few days to bother with it. This weekend when I go to the store, I'll find you some paint and we'll get this room done. Sound good?"

Law looked away, discouraged. "How come you're talking to me now?" He watched more clouds go by outside.

His father stopped his pacing, standing akimbo with a curious look on his face. "Perhaps because you're my son? Why else would I be talking to you?"

"But I killed hundreds of Pokemon. I couldn't make friends. I…" Law pulled his knees to his chest and covered his face with his hands. He dug his nails into his bruised forehead and shook, shaking his head. "I'm so stupid. So, so stupid."

Almost instantly he felt the bed dip down and an arm around his shoulders. "No, no you're not stupid, son. I promise. We both did something stupid and now we can move on and get on with our lives as best we can." Lawrence stood up and reached into his back pocket. Confused, Law looked up, rubbing tears from his face again, and saw in his father's nimble fingers a card; on it was a depiction of a strange, cat-like figure that Law could instantly place—the Ancient Mew card. "I got this years before you were born, it's what drove me to collect. But we can start again, you know. Here, keep this for good luck."

Law's brow furrowed. "But it's yours," he said, shaking his head. His green hair flopped all over the place and his violet eyes were dark. "I can't take what's yours."

"I am giving it to you, Law. You just have to promise me you will not lose it."

Swallowing, he took the card; it was covered in a little plastic protector, almost like a thin box. "I promise," he said, watching it shine in the moonlight. "I'm—I'm not one for cheesiness, but uh, thanks."

Lawrence chuckled quietly. Startling enough, Law had never really heard his father laugh before. He had only ever seen smirks and 'huhs' and such. "Don't worry," he said, "neither of us are good with corny things like this. Now, it's three thirty in the morning. You should probably get to sleep."

The boy placed the card on the desk. "Alright," he muttered. "You sleep, too. Also can I have…can I have violet paint for my room…?"

"Sure thing. Now get to bed. Your birthday's this weekend, remember? Can't have you tired for that!"

When his father left the room, Law sat there, staring at his hands. It seemed like things were fixed…just like that. He blinked a few times, clenched his hands into fists, and then looked at the card on his desk. He was unable to sleep that night, and stumbled into the kitchen exhausted, but somehow he did not feel so bad about the whole thing. His father was still mad—both at himself and his son—though things would work out eventually.

Hopefully.

* * *

_**Shinzu**_: -Deep breath- Hopefully everyone likes this! I've given Law's past a huge overhaul, haha.


End file.
